Reed, Cave win Rev3 Knoxville

Matt Reed passed Cameron Dye in the last mile to win by 9 seconds and Leanda Cave got some unexpected help to win the Rev3 Knoxville Olympic distance race when defending champ Julie Dibens went off course on the bike.

The men

In the men’s race, Cameron Dye rode to a 2 minute advantage over Reed with a race-best 18:07 swim and 55:08 bike, but Reed’s race-best 32:12 run passed Dye (34:22 run) in the last mile for a 9-second margin of victory in 1:48:53. Andrew Yoder combined a 18:42 swim, 55:12 bike and 34:19 run for third place, 45 seconds back of Dye.

"I felt the worst I have in a long time on the bike," said Reed to slowtwitch after the race. "And when I started the run I thought I was going for 2nd place. But at the run turnaround, I realized I was 30 seconds down with 2.5 miles to go and I thought I could do it. I caught him [Dye] faster than I thought I would, so when I passed him I put pressure on to hurt him and was in control the rest of the way."

The women

In the women’s swim, Annabel Luxford (19:19), Julie Dibens (19:23), Leanda Cave (19:26) and Becky Lavelle (19:29) emerged in a tight first pack from the Tennessee river. Unfortunately, Dibens and Luxford and some other women later went off course early on in the bike segment and lost several minutes. At the front of the race Cave looked smooth and in control and recorded the second-best bike split in a time of 1:04:17. That effort brought her back to the bike-run transition in the lead, with Lavelle’s 1:04:58 next and Dibens 1:05:26 trailing by just over a minute.

Out on the run, Cave had the second-best 10k in 37:43 and that proved to be fast enough enough to hold off Dibens’ race-best 37:35. At the line, Cave was first in 2:03:00 and honored the memory oj Jon Blais with a Blazeman Roll. Dibens crossed the line in 2nd place in 2:04:09, and Magali Tisseyre of Canada combined a 21:22 swim, race-best 1:04:15 bike and 3rd-best 37:57 run to finish 3rd overall in 2:05:34.

"It’s a really bittersweet victory," said Cave when interviewed after the race. "I feel bad for my competition as Julie and Annabel went off course on the bike."

Julie Dibens and Anabel Luxford though showed great class and never complained about the situation. Dibens even had a great smile on her face in the finish line area and observers unfamiliar with the situation wouldn't have been the wiser.

"Ultimately it is really up to me to know the course," said Dibens when pressed about the situation. "I would have like to win but it wasn't all about that. I had a great workout and I really have no regrets."

Magali Tisseyre seemed very happy with her third place finish, maybe because her start today was briefly in doubt after a railroad crossing tumble the day before the race.

Rev3 Knoxville race day
A very strong field lined up for the 2011 Rev3 Knoxville triathlon and Matty Reed and Leanda Cave took the titles. Enjoy this race day gallery. 5.15.11

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2012 Rev3 Knoxville race day
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Several leading athletes took an inadvertent shortcut during the bike course, and were given a 4min penalty by race officials. Was this resolution the best of a bad situation? Should the time addition been shorter or longer? Should the athletes have been DQd?